Okay. This place is so. incredibly. cool. I mean, we walked through the gate and it took both of our breath away. There was a story in the official program about how you can watch the event on tv and think it is wonderful, but then you come and experience it and you are blown away. So very true. My pictures won't do it justice, but look at the fields:
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| Volunteer Stadium |
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| Lamade Stadium |
I mean Perth, Australia, 11,490 miles and a whole hemisphere away. It is currently winter there. They had their regular season back in December. Can you imagine the travel arrangements and the jet lag and culture change for these kids? But they come because they love baseball. And do you know what? So do the kids from Newark, Delaware who only traveled 146 miles to get there. Isn't it incredible that all parts of the world and many different languages can be brought together for the love of baseball? It just doesn't get any better than that!
Thursday was the first day of action and we arrived early, in time for Opening Ceremonies. We parked in a lot across the street from the complex for $5, which was 100% donated to the American Cancer Society. There was a sign that said they raised $152,000 for the American Cancer Society at last year's World Series. So very cool. Anyway, for the Opening Ceremonies, first they brought out young kids carrying flags for each country and state represented at the World Series. It looked like this:
Then, each team was paraded out and everyone cheered wildly for them. Even the umpires got good cheers!
Next came the Little League pledge (which begins with I trust in God) spoken by a Little Leaguer in each of the languages represented and also the parent/coach pledge spoken in each language. That was really cool to hear. The mayors of Williamsport and South Williamsport both spoke and there was something from Kelloggs Frosted Flakes, the major sponsor, and a ceremonial first pitch from Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry. It was all really fun to watch. Of course, Aria liked Tony the Tiger the best.
Finally we got to watch a game. The first one we watched was The Caribbean vs. Latin America, aka Puerto Rico vs. Panama. It was just so fun to watch the kids play, especially the international teams. We were sitting next to this guy who used to play football and coach at Michigan State. There was also a family from Michigan who were Michigan fans. And there we sat as Iowa fans in the middle of Penn State country. It was just fun to chat with those people about the Big Ten and sports in general. Like I've said, pure sports. We let Aria pick one treat per day at the games. Day one was cotton candy. She had a lovely cotton candy beard and moustache.
Panama ended up blowing the game open a bit so we left a little early to get a seat in the other stadium for Texas vs. Washington. Well, there weren't any seats, so we headed to the infamous hill to watch the game. This is how Aria took it in:
This was our view. It was an interesting perspective from the hill. It was very steep and hard to sit on, but we managed. People had plastic chairs with the back legs practically sawed clear off to account for the slope. We didn't get any home run balls, but we were right next to an ESPN camera. Not sure if we ever made it on tv. California ended up beating Texas pretty soundly. We called it a day after that game and headed back to the hotel for more swimming. :)
On Day 2 of the games, the game we wanted to see the most was Iowa vs. Delaware, which was not until 8:00 pm. We had a lazy morning and didn't head to the complex until the afternoon. Our first stop was the Little League Museum. It was a lot of fun to see all the memorabilia and history of Little League. It really is incredible how long it has been around (1930s) and how many people have been a part of it. It was an interactive museum and I think Aria's favorite part was "running the bases."
It was just home to first, but there was a timer to see how fast you could go. She was on a loop with it for awhile. Thankfully there was no other kids wanting to do it. We also sat in a model dugout and Justin attempted to "catch a fly ball."
After the museum we went down to the fields to take in some games. The US game that was going on that afternoon was packed. We didn't really see a place to sit, even on the hill so we decided to just find a seat in the other stadium for the Japan vs. Czech Republic that was soon to start. We ended up sitting in there next to the grandparents of the boy who was pitching for Iowa that night and his little brother. The kid was really nice and gave Aria a Bomb Pop pin. Needless to say her treat of the day was a Bomb Pop.
It was incredible to hear about the Iowa team and how much it took for them to get to the World Series. At the beginning of the series that had not been home for more than 2 weeks. That means it would be a month of travelling for baseball. They also told about all the things given to the players like bats, shoes, uniform, etc and some of the sacrifices parents had to make. For example, one hour after the Iowa team qualified for the World Series, the parents had to commit to a hotel room, probably $200 + a night for a minimum of 6 nights. Of course they could have searched for their own lodging, but if they wanted one of the rooms in the block reserved for the Midwest team, they had to reserve right then and there. Crazy. It was fun to meet those people and we were able to watch the US game on a tv while we waited for the Japan game to start.
Japan, wow! They were like a machine. They eventually became the champions and we could see why. Their infield before the game was phenomenal. At one point the second baseman backhanded a ball and flipped it from his glove to the shortstop and the shortstop turned the double play. It was as smooth as butter. The crowd cheered for that play and it was just in warm up! The Iowa boys were lodged next to the Japan team and they learned that Japan practiced 3 times per day for 2 hours at a time, ran up to 4 miles per day and had time in the batting cages. Unreal. They were definitely fun to watch and they did seem like they were having a lot of fun getting to play there.
Part way through the Japan game I went over to Lamade stadium to reserve our seat for the Iowa game. I sat there for 2 hours so we could have a good seat near the Iowa crowd. The stadium filled up so fast. Because it is all free, general seating, you have to get there early. Even though we didn't know any of the people, it was fun to cheer for our state. It was also fun to be there for the prime time feature game of the evening. We finally got to see Dugout the mascot bear and all his antics like dancing with players, coaches, umpires, and volunteers.
We were bummed that Iowa lost that night and even more bummed that we were headed for home the next day and weren't going to see any more baseball. I definitely could have stayed and watched the games all 10 days. To this baseball fan, it was that cool.
One more cute quote from Aria, of course they sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" for the 4th inning stretch of each game. She picked up on the song and enjoyed singing, "Buy me some peanuts and pepper jacks." Pretty adorable.
Whew! What a fun experience! We will definitely be back. I don't know when, but I could see, when we are retired, Justin and I going out for the whole 10 days. If you love baseball, you just have to go. There is nothing like it!
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